Nirav Modi seeks permission to appeal extradition in UK top court

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi has filed an application in the High Court in London, seeking permission to appeal against his extradition order in the Supreme Court.

The 51-year-old diamantaire lost an appeal on mental health grounds earlier this month, when a two-judge High Court bench ruled that his risk of suicide was not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering in the estimated USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case.

Nirav, who remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in London, had two weeks to file an application seeking an appeal on the grounds of a point of law of general public importance, which according to experts is a high threshold that is not met very often. It is unknown if and when extradition may take place as Nirav Modi still has legal challenges open to him, UK Home Office sources said.